TOPLINE:

Women who engaged in resistance training for at least 2 h/wk had a 20% lower risk for major cardiovascular disease (CVD) events than those who did not. The benefit was larger among women who also met recommendations for aerobic activity and limited sedentary time.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers used data from two US-based prospective nurse cohorts to examine how long-term resistance training was linked to major CVD risk in women.
• They pooled 117,025 women from two nurse cohorts, with mean ages at baseline of 66.8 and 48.1 years.
• About every 4 years, women reported weekly hours of upper- and lower-body resistance training. Researchers calculated long-term exposure and set the recommended threshold at a minimum of 1 h/wk of resistance training.
• Researchers applied cutoffs of 15 or more metabolic equivalents of task-hours per week for aerobic activity and less than 2 h/d of television viewing to indicate low sedentary time.
• The primary outcome was the incidence of a major CVD event, defined as a composite of nonfatal or fatal myocardial infarction, stroke, coronary artery bypass grafting, or percutaneous coronary intervention.

TAKEAWAY:

• A total of 5459 incident major CVD events occurred during a mean follow-up of 14.5 years.
• Women who engaged in at least 2 h/wk of resistance training had a 20% lower risk for major CVD events than those who did not engage (P for trend = .007). Each additional hour of resistance training per week was associated with a 5% lower risk (P for linearity = .003).
• Resistance training performed at least 2 h/wk was associated with a 44% lower risk for myocardial infarction than no resistance training (P for trend < .001). Each additional hour was associated with a 14% lower risk (P for linearity < .001).
• Women who met all three recommendations regarding resistance training, aerobic activity, and low sedentary time had a 40% lower risk for major CVD than those who met none of the recommendations. 

IN PRACTICE:

“[The] results underscore the importance of integrated prevention approaches that combine structured physical activity with reductions in sedentary time to optimize cardiovascular health,” the researchers wrote.

“We have long encouraged resistance training, and this study provides strong evidence to reinforce that message,” said Harlan M. Krumholz, MD, editor in chief of JACC and the Harold H. Hines, Jr, Professor at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, in a press release. “It should be included in a well-rounded health routine to support function and longevity.”

SOURCE:

The study was led by Tianyue Zhang, MD, of Zhejiang University School of Medicine in Hangzhou, China, and Yiwen Zhang, PhD, of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. It was published online on June 17 in JACC.

LIMITATIONS:

Resistance training was self-reported and lacked details on type, intensity, and level of supervision. Unmeasured healthy user factors may have introduced bias. Most participants were White nurses, limiting generalizability. 

DISCLOSURES:

The two source prospective studies received support from the National Cancer Institute. One author reported receiving support from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.